Distant Memories
by Venomousdeers
Summary: He didn't imagine himself being forced to leave her. Her very life and the lives of her friends dangled by a thread if he didn't take his first; so he did. (AU to 4x24- 5x01)


It was a bullet to the stomach that killed him, that's what everyone had said. That's what he had read in the papers himself. Little did the people on that roof know that what happens those night years ago was all a plot. Well, not the A attacking the girls, but certainly Ezra's arrival and his heroic deed of taking the gunshot that might have killed Aria or her friends. It wasn't easy to orchestrate such a ploy while staying under A's radar, but he was able to successfully pull it off, given that there would be unwanted outcomes that he knew would happen.

"Aria, it's time to go." Spencer whispered as she shook Aria's shoulder. She glanced over at the black dress that Mrs. Montgomery had picked out for her to wear that day. Spencer was in one herself, and it already had dots of a darker shade of black thanks to the tears that had fallen down her cheeks before she had even reached the Montgomery house.

Aria's face was puffy and red as she turned over to look at Spencer. It didn't look like she had gotten much sleep the previous night, or the ones before that. She sighed and climbed out of her bed, staring silently at the morbidly colored dress.

"Do you need help getting dressed?" Spencer asked, clasping her hands together to keep from touching Aria. The girl had been like a glass doll since the night in New York, the simplest touch could shatter her into a million irreparable pieces. She already felt as if her heart was broken into thirty thousand million pieces all over again. She refused to ever try again.

"No, I'm okay." She whispered almost inaudibly.

What she didn't know was it was all for her. Everything that he had ever done was to keep her safe. He couldn't take it all back, as much as he wanted to. He wished she wasn't involved in all this crazy torture and forced to come to terms with the death of the only man she ever truly loved. He wanted to be there for her, to silence her cries when she learned he was dead. He wasn't dead, very much alive, of only there was a way of her knowing without putting her life in danger. He just needed a way out, and be couldn't just do it alone, it would be to difficult. There were multiple people involved in his escape. His escape from A.

She still went to his grave as much as she could. But the spaces between days she would visit would become longer. First everyday, then maybe once or twice a week after a few months. Then twice a month at the very most. The hole in her heart remained as large as it was, and as large as it would always be. No matter what she tried to patch it up with, it may have been covered and looked as if she was okay, but the hole in her heart would never be truly healed.

On those days where she would go to his grave, she sat under the hanging branches of the tree that his gravestone was placed under. The wind that whistled through the leaves and her hair calmed her a bit, but the thought of the only man she wanted to spend her life with being six feet under just made her want to loose it. And he wasn't really under there. They had said that he was cremated, something that he had wanted. His mother had said to Aria that as a child, Ezra had told his mother that he never wanted people to see him dead after going to his grandfather's funeral; it was an open casket.

To be honest, Aria was glad that she wasn't to see Ezra dead. His cold, lifeless body would be too much for her. The makeup that would be caked on him before his burial and the way his eyes would be closed would just kill her then and there. How she wished she could stare into those ocean blue irises and see them staring right back at her. She just wished for one last chance to hear his voice soothing her and telling her that it would all be okay in the end.

Her father had once snapped at her after her nonstop obsession with going to see him everyday that he wasn't there, that he wasn't underneath the ground and in that grave. The expensive wooden coffin was empty except for the flowers that were placed inside. His body was never in there and never would be. Her father insisted that she stopped with her insistent visits to the cemetery and just move on from Ezra Fitz.

It was what he had to do to keep them safe. He had to fool A and pretend to take his own life to protect the people he cared about. And it worked, they were safe and A was gone thanks to the loads of research he had left for the girls to sift through and find clues and evidence.

He had many people in on his plan. He was cornered by A weeks before the accident, saying that if he didn't die, the girls would in his place. He would then have five funerals to attend on his account. Including a girl's whom everyone believed was already dead. Ezra had Wesley and even friends of his from New York out on his plot. He had Wesley borrow money from his mother so he would have enough to support himself for the first few months on his own. He had his friends whom were officers and a paramedic do the rest of the work, he just remained still and as close to not breathing as possible after the rooftop scene.

He was driven in an ambulance to the hospital, where he was replaced in the gurney by a person who looked vaguely like him. Ezra simply changed into a police uniform and followed the cop friend stealthily into his police car. He was driven to the nearest airport and sent on his way. He had everyone make sure no one saw his body and it was confirmed he was as dead as a door nail.

It wasn't easy to move on, but three years did fly by and Aria did find herself in the arms of a certain gentleman whom she had come to love. It wasn't easy for her to let go of Ezra, but he was in the past. It wasn't easy to let Collin into her life, but after a few dates insisted by him and Spencer, things became natural, and it felt good for once in a long time.

Collin held up a picture of Aria and Ezra, her arm outstretched in the photo to hold the camera at the right angle and their heads tilted to touch each other's. "You've still never told me much about him. Just that he's not here anymore." He said, looking at the picture again.

Aria glanced up at the picture he was talking about. Her heart immediately deflated. She still missed him as much as anything. Collin may have been able to restore the spark in her life and send jolts of electricity through her with just a touch, but it didn't mean Ezra was just a wandering thought. Three years passed and she was still madly in love with a dead man.

"He just died saving my life. There's nothing else to talk about." That seemed to translate to Collin as "I don't want to talk about it" so he simply placed the dusty framed picture back in the drawer he found it in.

There was one gal from Rosewood in particular in which Ezra put all his trust into and corresponded with frequently. He talked with Emily Fields through typed letters and emails every so often. Asking questions and keeping tabs on Aria. Emily had unfortunately refrained from mentioning Collin on several occasions, even though he had told her to be completely honest. She didn't want to break his heart. He faked his death to keep her safe; she knew he deeply loved her.

Yes, she was beyond livid to hear about the book and even more enraged when she received a letter a year later from a man by the name of Harrison Lee, claiming that he was Ezra Fitz and had explained the entire night he was supposedly killed in great detail. She was not convinced until she traveled to Louisiana herself, determined to meet the man face to face. She was surprised to find a bespectacled, bearded man who resembled Ezra to a T standing before her at the airport. From them on, she had responded to him whenever he sent letters or emailed her and was sure to delete or burn every trace of him she ever had, in fear Aria would find something. Emily had only seen him in person once since the incident.

"Harrison Lee, huh?" Emily asked as she waited a for Ezra to unlock the door to his new apartment. The apartment was a little bigger thanks to the lump some of money he had gotten from Wesley and his salary as a American Literature professor in a college in Baton Rouge.

"Yeah, I just needed to change my name and get as far away from Rosewood as I could." He scratched his full beard and walked inside his apartment, shoving the key into his pocket and hanging up his black overcoat.

"When are you coming back to Rosewood, if you are?" Ezra sighed, sitting down on the couch placed in the middle of the room. His one hand rubbed stressfully against his temple.

"How would everyone, meaning Aria and the rest of Rosewood, react to me coming back from the dead? I don't think she needs another one of those scares, Emily. I know you told me she isn't with anyone but we both know you're lying. Wesley saw her and another guy together. I can't say I'm not upset cause I'd be lying, but I'm glad she's not dwelling on me for too long." He replied.

"She still loves you, Ezra." Emily watched tears brim his darkened eyes. It was few seconds before he was able to answer back.

"I still love her too."

Ezra had eventually grown the balls to head back into his old hometown of Rosewood. He had visited the place where his apartment used to be, he gulped hard as he realized it was no longer his and now belonged to some college aged girl. He hadn't walked through the streets of the town since the night before the incident. Now it all seemed like some sort of delirious nightmare.

Was he moving back? Maybe. Did he want to? He didn't even know the answer to that question. His large beard and glasses that basically made him look like another man still resided on his face. He was nervous about people recognizing him as the guy who died. Through Emily, he had learned that almost the whole town attended his wake. Three years didn't change a lot, he was bound to be noticed without the disguise he had come to live with.

The first place he went to was Emily's house. She was twenty-one now and happily living on her own in Rosewood. Upon answering the door, they embraced cheerfully and Emily said that she was happy to give him a place to stay until he made up his mind about whether or not moving back to Rosewood was the best idea. Emily didn't seem to have any strong alcohol to calm his jumping nerves, so he insisted upon heading to a nearby bar, alone.

The bar was seemingly empty, aside from one couple whom he could only see half of as he walked through the door. He paused though, as he reached the entrance, his insides just seemed to rearrange themselves as he stopped mid step and focused his eyes on the couple at the bar counter. There, in the flesh, was Aria. Even more lustrously beautiful than how he remembered her. It was as if he couldn't even move as he watched her take a sip of amber colored liquid while also taking the hand of the man beside her.

She looked happy.

He couldn't just crash into her life like that.

It wasn't until her hazel eyes darted to look at the strange man standing in the door that he contemplated bolting from the bar and back to Louisiana. His heart sank into his stomach as their eyes met, and it looked like there was glimmer of wonder in her eyes. Almost as if she knew exactly who he was through his disguise.

She thought he was a dead. He was literally a dead man walking. Ezra just wanted to walk up then and there and kiss her; hard and with as much pent up anger and passion as he could. He hated himself for doing it, staring at her so lovingly as he watched her interact with another man. The guy seemed to follow Aria's gaze as she suddenly lost interest in whatever it was he was saying. Though his eyes didn't fill with recognition as hers did after a while. Her eyebrows creased as she was stuck in thought. Finally, he heard her speak to him for the first time in far too long.

"Ezra?"

**This was just something I thought up strangely and just decided to write it. This will be a ****_one-shot_** **and I will NOT be continuing it. Hope you enjoyed it! Please review!**


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